Gertrude and the Labyrinth Forest
by Dierdre LeFae
Summary: In a valley surrounded by high mountains. In this valley is an enchanted forest called the Labyrinth Forest. Gert is trapped in this forest. How did she get here, and how will she get out? Read on to find out!


Gertrude and the Labyrinth Forest

There is a valley surrounded by high mountains that go so far up that some people believe you can climb to the top and touch the sun and moon. In this valley is an enchanted forest called the Labyrinth Forest. A senile wizard once came to the valley seeking refuge from the constant wants of the villagers. In his attempt to create a place of solitude, he ended up creating a maze of hedges and thorns. In the center of this maze is an enchanted wall of closely knit trees surrounding a modest sized house where the wizard once lived. What once housed a wizard now houses a young lady who is trapped in the forest. She knows not how she came to live there or even _when_ for that matter. She lives out her days in increasing loneliness and tries to remember who she is and what brought her to this wretched place.

It was a sunny day from what Gertrude could tell from the patches of bright yellow light coming through the trees tightly woven overhead. She paused in her work to stare at the patterns of light dancing around her and the small rabbit she was currently skinning to prep for stew. She stretched her hands upwards towards the source of the light and wondered what it would feel like to touch it; but that was a frivolous thought. There was no way she could ever get near the light and she knew that. She sighed heavily and returned to skinning the rabbit.

As soon as she put her knife back to work, she heard a large creature rumbling through the Labyrinth Forest that surrounded her and her humble house. She immediately sheathed the knife in the strap that was placed on her right thigh and drew her Azmityian firecrest enchanted sword out from its scabbard that was conveniently placed in a belt around her waist. She took a step back to prepare for whatever creature was about to meet its death. Her eyes tried to find the source of the sound, but couldn't because it was so loud it sounded as if it were coming from every direction at once. There was no way to be able guess where it would appear by using the naked eye- the Labyrinth Forest that surrounded her house in a giant circular knot of confusion was enchanted, so you never knew what was hedge and what was opening.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted behind her, startled, she spun around and was immediately blinded by the light. She lowered her eyes and looked at the ground, she could see it trembling under the immense weight of the creature barreling towards her. She swung the sword to her left and prepared to slash through the beast as it met her. Then, the light vanished in an instant, Gertrude looked up just in time to see the creature before she swung- it was a huge brown, shaggy-looking beast with a childlike innocence in its eyes, it was about three heads taller than Gertrude in height and length and was very similar to the mutts you see in alleyways and side streets in towns-only much, much larger. It stopped right in front of her and promptly sat down, a limp deer dangling from its massive muzzle.

"Geez," Gertrude sheathed her sword and stepped towards the massive beast "You shouldn't come running in here like that, I could've killed you!"

The beast dropped the deer delicately in front of Gertrude and began wagging its massively shaggy tail, causing the nearby ground to quack under the weight.

"Yes, you _did_ do a good job, much better than the small rabbit I managed to catch for my own supper, but still, you know you aren't suppose to do that, I can't feel your presence outside of this clearing" the shaggy beast lowered its head in apology. Gertrude hugged its large head, "Aw, you know I couldn't stay mad at you Old Lace," the beast began to lick Gertrude's face "Okay, okay, that's enough!" Gertrude fought off the kisses through giggles "Now, you bring this deer you brought over to the stump where I am preparing my dinner and we can exchange tales of what we found in the forest this morning!"

The two began to communicate telepathically as Gertrude finished skinning and prepping the rabbit for her supper. Old Lace informed Gertrude of a new area she discovered today, although it looked the same as nearly every other place in the forest, Old Lace insisted that it smelled completely different from anything she had ever smelled before. She was distracted from the place when she had spotted the deer, and after her hunt was over, she had tried to return to the place, but couldn't find it anywhere. Gertrude was intrigued by this piece of information. New places where very hard to find in the forest, generally the same areas would randomly show their entries on a daily basis, these places were distinguishable by certain statues, plants, or distinguishable ruins. After the preparation was done, Gertrude took the meat inside to cook it in the big iron stew pot over the fire. Old Lace came over from This was how their days generally went- minus the part where she almost killed Old Lace, that only happened a couple times a week.

The Afternoon was coming to a close, shards of pink and orange sunlight came shooting through the tight overhead of clustered tree branches. _Another day and still nothing is coming back to me,_ Gertrude thought as she cleaned up and prepared some hot water for tea _How long will it be before I remember who I am and how the heck me and Old Lace got here?_ She stirred in some tea leaves and left the tea brew to steep while she gazed out one of the windows of the kitchen to look at the woods beyond the house. She felt as if there was something important she was doing before any of this craziness happened, but what it was, she could not recall.

AN: I hope you like this first, rather short, chapter of my Runaways fan fiction. I absolutely love Runaways, I'm a huuuge fan, so writing a fiction is only natural for me. Since I am also working on Rose Kiss, I may not update this one as often. I want the chapters to be longer from now on, so I will wait until I have a nice beefy chapter before I update this again. I hope you will come back for more!


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